Get an introduction to ECMAScript for XML (E4X), a simple extension to JavaScript that makes XML scripting very simple. In this paper, the authors demonstrate a Web programming model called Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) and show you how some new XML extensions to JavaScript can make it very simple.

AJAX and scripting Web services with E4X, Part 1, Part 2

ECMAScript for XML (E4X) has been introduced in the beta builds of Mozilla Suite 1.8. It is an extension to the ECMAScript standardized scripting language, and allows the use of native XML primitives/objects, in other words it is no longer necessary to embed XML as Strings.

Check out my latest E4X Examples at the Codepit.

[/.] aykroyd writes “Students at Simon’s Rock College conducted the original test that Turing suggested in his 1950 paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence. Often misunderstood, the Turing Test has never actually been conducted as laid out in his paper. The experiment utilized a program called A.L.I.C.E.,
which is designed to hold one end of an interactive conversation. The program was provided by the ALICE Artificial Intelligence Foundation. Dr. Richard Wallace, who was on hand during the experiment to troubleshoot the AI robot, later gave a lecture about it called “The Anatomy of A.L.I.C.E.” and also blogged the event.”

Slashdot | Turing’s Original Test Played First Time Ever

[/.] visination.com writes “Recent ground based observations of Mars have confirmed the presence of water and methane. The 300 year life time of methane on Mars is short, giving scientists reason to beleive that Mars may be biologically active.” From the article: “Every one of these longitudes shows a very substantial enhancement in the equatorial zone…So this is a very intense source of methane on Mars in this region. It also requires a very rapid decay of methane…more rapid than photochemistry would allow…”

Slashdot | Biological Activity on Mars

New research suggests that the early universe was a hot, dense liquid made of basic atomic particles, overturning the widely held belief that fiery gas existed immediately after the “big bang” that created the cosmos.

Related:
* CNN: Scientists: Early universe didn’t blow so much as flow
* USAToday.com: Picking apart the ‘Big Bang’ brings a big mystery
* Slashdot.org: Data Suggests Early Universe was Superfluid

Science News : Early universe may have been fluid